The BFA held it's final meeting of fall semester on December 1, 2022 via Zoom. Provost Russell Moore addressed members at the top of the meeting and reviewed specific topics of interest to the faculty including:
- Update regarding restricted proprietary and classified research funding – this type of research specific controls and facilities, which would need to be created off-campus. Creating a Classified Research Ready Roadmap report is currently in process and is expected in spring semester.
- Supporting campus Iranian and Iranian American faculty, staff, and students – currently meeting with leadership and the campus Iranian community to improve services and support CU Boulder can offer.
- Faculty Mental Health – campus faculty and staff can now access the telehealth service: Academic Life Care (ALC). Additionally campus is working on a training series for faculty to recognize student signs of distress and available campus resources.
- Native American Campus Liaison – Sr. Vice Chancellor for DEI, Sonia DeLuca Fernandez is creating a hiring plan for this position that will be an external facing position to liaise with national Native American nations.
- Equal Pay Equal Work Act (EPEWA) updates –
- Faculty Salary Procedures Working Group (FSPWG) report due in early spring
- HR will have structural salary compression adjustments for staff before the end of the year.
- Instructor Promotion Pay increases – Deans were asked to discuss unified approach to pay increases. ARMAC is gathering this information from public institutions and will have recommendations spring semester. Members also discussed a recent proposal to allow for teaching faculty to choose a 12-month vs. 9-month appointment.
- CFO Hagerty and CBO Fergus charged with creation of strategic compensation plan for campus.
- Online Sports Betting – review of the 2020 campus agreement with PointsBet as featured in a recent NYT article. Member discussion included a suggestion to have campus academic units create guides/pointers for students to use regarding the use of online sports betting. (please also see the BFA resolution recommending that campus create a campus policy on sports wagering on CU Boulder NCAA team submitted by the Intercollegiate Athletics committee and approved by representatives last year)
In BFA committee updates and news:
- The BFA Administrator Appraisal Committee (AAPC) has been newly reconstituted and Fernando Rosario-Ortiz, Civil, Architechtural, and Environmental Engineering was elected as committee chair. The committee will be conducting an appraisal of Provost Moore during spring semester, and has updated the committee charge to reflect the new processes. Rosario-Ortiz introduced a motion regarding these changes: BFA-M-3-11.14.22 AAPC Committee Charge Revision for review by representatives. Feedback or questions on the motion should be sent to him at bfa@colorado.edu. The motion will be voted on at the BFA February 2023 meeting.
- The BFA Bylaws Committee introduced two motions requesting changes to the BFA Bylaws and Standing Rules regarding membership and eligibility for BFA Officers and At-Large Representatives. Additionally, the BFA Executive Committee is recommending similar changes to CU Faculty Council Bylaws and Faculty Constitution regarding membership and elgibility for Faculty Council Officers. These items will all be voted on at the February Assembly meeting. BFA representatives are encouraged to share these items with their constituents and send any questions or suggestions to Alastair Norcross at bfa@colorado.edu.
- Representatives unanimously approved a motion introduced at November Assembly to revise the AST committee name and charge to Academic Technologies & Services Committee.
Members also heard updates on the 2023 FRPA (due Feburary 1, 2023 for work done during AY21-22) by Andrea Feldman, chair of the BFA Diversity Committee. See "What's New on the FRPA this year" for complete details. Additionally, BFA Chair Tiffany Beechy let representatives know that she has been attending faculty department meetings this fall to discuss options for including DEI work in unit annual merit review evaluation processes. Interested units should feel free to email her at bfa@colorado.edu to schedule a session for spring semester. Please also see the BFA DEI in Faculty Merit Evaluations webpage for DEI narrative examples and related BFA resolutions.
Lastly, members from the BUS-LIT Buff Undergraduate Success Team gave Assembly members an update on their work including projects completed in 2022 and projects to be completed by fall 2023. See presentation slides for more details.
Dates for BFA General Assembly meetings during spring semester are listed below. All meetings will be held via Zoom, except for the May 4 meeting which will be held in-person at the Chancellor's Hall in the CASE Building.
Spring 2023
- Feb. 2
- Mar. 2
- Apr. 6
- May 4